Dear Santa Claus,
We’ve spent a lot of time talking about how ethics can feel like a homemade recipe—different ingredients in different kitchens, each culture and time period adding its own flavor. But now, we’re going to ask a different question: what if there’s a recipe that doesn’t change? What if there’s a moral compass that doesn’t spin wildly with every gust of cultural wind?
Ethical objectivism invites us to consider that maybe there’s a “naughty list” after all—not one written by any particular culture, but one that reflects a deeper, more stable sense of right and wrong. It’s the idea that some things might be ethically true no matter where or when you are. And that’s what we’ll explore this week: the possibility that there are ethical truths that stand firm, even when everything else is in flux.
So, dear Santa, we’re asking: is there a way to know if we’re on the “naughty list” or the “nice list” that doesn’t depend on who’s writing it? And if there is, what does that mean for how we live and how we judge right from wrong?
Let’s find out if there’s a moral north star we can all steer by.
Still searching for the true north,
~ The Radical Left